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Weapon naming in fantasy literature


redarm

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With Perrin naming his hammer Mah'alleinir I got to thinking about other weapons throughout all the fantasy novels I have read. It seems pretty common for our heros to name their sidearms. Remember Gandalf's Glamdring and Bilbo's Sting? How about Chance from the Malazan Book of the Fallen? The great Excalibur of Arthurian lore comes t mind as well. I know there are many others out there that I can't remember. So help me out. If you can think of a weapon used by a hero from fantasy lit that was given a name share it please.

 

Also does anyone remember any other weapons from WoT that were named? I don't remember any. Is Mah'alleinir the only one?

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well theres Callallandor of course. thats all i can recall from the WoT series.

 

 

unless you mean that crazy Aiel no one talks about who named his spears "Stab", "Rip" & "Tear" :baalzamon:

 

 

 

in ASoF&I Ned named his sword Ice.

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Drizzt named his scimitars Twinkle and Icingdeath. I don't think Roland Deschain's guns had names.

 

 

Also, Wulfgar (one of Drizzt's companions) had a very powerful magical war hammer named Aegis-Fang.

 

 

 

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The original model for Callandor was Excalibur, King Arthur's sword. The Norse god Thor's hammer was named Mjollnir, fairly close to Perrin's hammer's name.

 

In Fred Saberhagen's Book of Swords, there are twelve named swords, each with its own magical property:

 

Coinspinner

Doomgiver

Dragonslicer

Farslayer

Mindsword

Shieldbreaker

Sightblinder

Soulcutter

Stonecutter

Townsaver

Wayfinder

Woundhealer

 

 

And of course there's always the Vorpal Blade that slew the Jabberwock.

Edited by Gaidin Poindexter
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In Fred Saberhagen's Book of Swords, there are twelve named swords, each with its own magical property:

Stonecutter

Is the magic property of this sword rigging every Oscar night? Keeping Atlantis off the maps? The Martians under wraps?

 

In The Steel Remains, Ringil's sword is called Ravensfriend. Martin has a few more besides those already mentioned: Oathkeper, Widow's Wail, Heartsbane, Needle and Lady Forlorn can all be added to the list. Malazan also gives us Grief/Vengeance.

 

Edit: Also, Terminus Est, Severian's sword from The Book of the New Sun.

Edited by Mr Ares
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OMG how could i forget Arya's Needle!!!! and the reason why she chooses that name is great :laugh:

 

Damn, someone beat me to naming Drizzts swords!

 

I want to name a weapon 'Retribution' in my book.

 

if you have a weapon like that, then you have to a good history either with the character that weilds it or the sword itself. using the word Retibution, i think of an avenger or rightous revenge. take lan, i could see him naming his sword Retribution; because he's using it to avenge the fallen Malkeri *nods*

 

 

so you could have this weapon come to those who need to be an avenger, maybe make it a myth surroundign the weapon. that could be an interesting story angle :wink:

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In Fred Saberhagen's Book of Swords, there are twelve named swords, each with its own magical property:

Stonecutter

Is the magic property of this sword rigging every Oscar night? Keeping Atlantis off the maps? The Martians under wraps?

 

HA! I did not even catch that! :biggrin::laugh:

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Damn, someone beat me to naming Drizzts swords!

 

I want to name a weapon 'Retribution' in my book.

 

And Brent Weeks beat ya (in Night Angel trilogy) to naming a weapon (sword) Retribution, sorry.

 

The Adem in Wise Man's Fear have a few named blades.

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